First Contact: Sphere's weapons = pathetic.

WalkinMan said:
However, the other contrivance is the whole idea of time travel...if this were so great a gambit, a cube could have time traveled in the Beta Quadrant and come over to Earth or something.

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I've been saying THAT ever since the film first came out! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Actually, there's a good reason not to time travel, then head to your destination. Since time moves at different rates depending on your speed, and since everything in the universe is moving at its own speed, time does not flow at the exact same rate at different places in the universe.

The Borg could've gone back three hundred twenty years in the Delta quadrant, but when they got to Earth, they might've found they'd only gone back two hundred seventy years. Or they'd overshot, and gone back to the 20th century (why not? Everyone else was). Since they had a very specific target, they'd only be able to get the precision they wanted by going back at their destination.

Going back in time elsewhere would also increase the likelihood that they'd change history unintentionally on their way.

The power needed to create a time vortex took up about 99% of the sphere's power, leaving its shields burnt out and its weapons running on extreme low power. And possibly with structural damage. Remember, the Ent-E got a free ride and it was pretty beat up too. I'd say neigther ship made it through with shields.

As Picard said, "They knew their ship was doomed." The sphere may have been on the verge of collapse before it was hit by the Ent-E torpedoes.

It's possible the Borg method of generating time vortexs has a very high failure rate, explaining why they don't always try time travel.

...Or then the Borg got exactly what they wanted: the bombardment was merely a means of luring Picard and his Chief Engineer to Montana, where they would "repair" the crazy tin can of a madman into a working warpship and thus help create the utterly unlikely Federation which in 200 years would provide such bountiful pickings for the Borg.

Or then the Borg really were off to kill Cochrane and destroy his ship, but they were discreet and wanted to use weaponry that could be mistaken for 21st century ECON ordnance. It would do the job in an hour or two, without suggesting extraterrestrial intervention.

As for time travel hurting the time traveler, it could be argued that the E-E lost her shields and sensors when the Borg tractor beam hit her, much like the E-D shields were always drained by Borg beams. There's no dialogue to indicate that the damage would be the result of time travel, to be sure.

Timo said:
...Or then the Borg got exactly what they wanted: the bombardment was merely a means of luring Picard and his Chief Engineer to Montana, where they would "repair" the crazy tin can of a madman into a working warpship and thus help create the utterly unlikely Federation which in 200 years would provide such bountiful pickings for the Borg.

Or then the Borg really were off to kill Cochrane and destroy his ship, but they were discreet and wanted to use weaponry that could be mistaken for 21st century ECON ordnance. It would do the job in an hour or two, without suggesting extraterrestrial intervention.

As for time travel hurting the time traveler, it could be argued that the E-E lost her shields and sensors when the Borg tractor beam hit her, much like the E-D shields were always drained by Borg beams. There's no dialogue to indicate that the damage would be the result of time travel, to be sure.

Timo Saloniemi

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eh, I don't like any of those explanations. I think the Borgy-ball was trying to blow Cochrane up real good.

Or vice versa. After all, if the Borg truly failed, wouldn't they try again? That's sort of inherent in time travel.

Queen: "My brilliant plan is to erase the Federation by tampering with their past. I will execute it tomorrow. I definitely will."

<waits>

<cybernetically augmented crickets chirp>

Queen: "Oh, well, apparently I didn't succeed. Okay, so my NEXT plan is to try even harder with erasing the Federation by tamperi... Wait, what am I saying? What is 'Federation'? Ah, no matter. Let's move on to the next item. Assimilation of Earth. You say it's a primitive world not worth tuppence?"

Drone #74656: "Indeed, my liege. Shall we proceed anyway?"

Queen: "Sure. In 6,300 years or so, when they have evolved enough. Do they have any interesting neighbors?"

ANYTHING can kill the Borg. More specifically, anything can kill two Borg Drones before they adapt. Even familiar things like standard phasers, as VOY amply demonstrated. It's the third Drone one should worry about...

Borg Drones don't travel pre-adapted; apparently they prefer to die first, in order to analyze what kind of weapons the enemy is wielding, until selecting the appropriate countermeasure. Picard may very well have known this, and thus would see no point in issuing tommy-guns to his crew after wasting those two Drones.

^ I hear what you're saying, but that's a cop out. (Sorry.) A simple projectile weapon has to be one of, if not the most common sort of weapon in existence. To not be able to defend against that is just silly, which was my point (hence the ).

Kirkunit said:
^ I hear what you're saying, but that's a cop out. (Sorry.) A simple projectile weapon has to be one of, if not the most common sort of weapon in existence. To not be able to defend against that is just silly, which was my point (hence the ).

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Well, the other tack to take is that it was an attack involving bullet-shaped force-fields meant to simulate, but not duplicate, machine gun bullets, making it a new and bizarre type of energy weapon that the Borg, conceivably, might not be adapted to.

The Borg Queen said:
Another example of why the Star Trek people took a good idea (the Borg,) realised they wrote themselves into a hole with it, and had to disregard their own concept to make a plothole to let the heroes win.

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Bollocks.

The only folks who even noticed that need to take a step back and just enjoy the fucking movie.